One of the new guys in the room got up really early around 5.00 and made a fair bit of noise as well. I got up when he was gone and he'd somehow wet the whole room including the toilet itself. I mopped up a bit with my towel and just left it there as I should get a new one. I got ready quickly and left on time around 6 to get to the bus station and catch the 6.30 bus number 740 to the south. It was a fairly long journey and I wrote a blog on the way as there was nothing special to see. We arrived around 8am and I headed to the nearby waterfall as per maps. It didn't look like it was on the right area and there were buildings and some kind of allotment so maybe someones GPS had been wrong when they added the place. I moved on to where the actual waterfall was and on the north of the bridge there was no water at all but in the south there was so maybe they were cheating to keep the waterfall going. I went into the area and the first waterfall was really a pool but it did look nice and it had a cave to the side where the water came from and a man sat there setting up his camera. I moved on and waterfall 2 was a waterfall and was ok although not so high. Further on was a bridge which I started crossing but reevaluated my route and went back and further south to waterfall 3 which was not so good and obstructed by trees. The viewing platform was also not very close or low down enough. I went back up and went to a temple where there was just one closed building and a monument nearby with a 4 plaque history about some temples. I went back to the bridge and went across and saw a pavilion which was quite nice and then made up a circuitous route as there were a few things there. A lot of tourists must come to this area as there were so many museums to take their money. First there was a chocolate and a movie waxworks which were both closed as it was still early. Then there was a virtual reality museum, a teddy bear museum and a Ripley's believe it or not which had an interesting building as they often do. I went to the botanical gardens but they were 10,000 entry and I was going to see how much the Alive museum was but there was a tourist information office so I checked there instead and the Alive museum was also 10,000 and had art pieces that came out of the frame. I also found out that the last bus back to Jeju city was 10pm so we could have made it here the day before. I was going to the coast and went along the road which was a mistake as it was a boring walk with little to see. There was a nicer path I missed along the way or otherwise I should have walked along the coast in both directions as the views could have been worth it. The coast was nice with lots of volcanic rock formations and the bookmarked place was a pool which looked man made and might be used for something although it was too small for swimming. There was a toilet thankfully and I ate another banana, my 3rd or 4th for the day. I headed west along the coast and the path ended for a while and I had to continue along the rocks on the beach. The cliff there had column formations which were really good and I took a few photos before going closer to a cave which went all the way through. There had been a sign warning of rockfalls but I still went through just more carefully. I carried on along the bouldery beach and then a small sandy beach and some more boulders for a bit before there were stairs up so I had a look and the coastal path I was meant to be on was there so I continued along that. There was a proper beach which I went down to and it was pretty popular with a lot of people surfing. It was a really hot day and I was glad I wore my shorts. I checked the water and it was fairly warm so I decided to go swimming but I didn't have my swimming trunks and anyone around my age from England will know when you don't bring you PE kit in junior school you have to do it in your pants which is what I did as my side of the beach was empty. It was nice and refreshing but I didn't stay too long and I now had wet shorts. As it was around 12, I sat on a wall at the end of the beach and ate my tofu and noodles for lunch before carrying on. I had to join the road for a bit and found a buffet restaurant but it was 29,500 and I still had quite a bit of food, there was a place called Pacific land nearby which had sea world type shows. After that I crossed a bridge and headed back to the coast which I continued along for an hour or so. It was a really nice day and I was enjoying the south coast with occasional rock formations and I paid to see the hexagonal column formations which look like the giants causeway even though you can just go past them and walk along the beach to see them it was a nice view and didn't slow me down. The path along the coast ended for a while and I decided to head inland and carch a bus so that I could see some other attractions further along. I took the bus to the Seogwipo terminal and headed to the nearby world cup football stadium which was getting ready for the U20 world cup due to start in 2 days. The stadium was nice and new and I could see in through the fence so I walked around and there was a gate open on the south side so I went in to get a better view. I finished going round and headed back to the road which I walked along a bit before I could join the coast path. The coast was a bit different here with an island visible and after a while I came to the next attraction called Oedolgae which was a lone rock. It wasn't that special but there was the island and 2 lighthouses visible as well as other rick formations so it did work quite well. Apparently some popular Korean TV show was filmed along this coast which wasn't of any interest to me. A bit further on was a path to the island and I went that way, crossing a nice new looking bridge. They had a wooden boardwalk around the small island with barriers to make sure people didn't wander off and as I left the island a cruise ship docked and literally a boat load of people got off. Thankfully I was finished and headed back uphill to walk around a park near to where a waterfall was supposed to be. I walked around but there was no path to the waterfall and I was amongst the trees listening to music and tried to take a photo of an interesting bird when it flew away and the song lyrics I was listening to went "all the birds have flown, now I'm dancing on my own". I suppose I could have made this up, who knows maybe I did. I carried on and the path to the waterfall was out of the way and the map showed a ticket booth so I decided to skip it as it was getting on and it didn't look like I was going to make it to mount Hallasan to climb to the top. I went over the bridge east and along a few roads where there was supposed to be a supermarket but it was a convenience store. There was a church which was bug and blocky and cream coloured and I got to the coast again where some youths were on the rocks and one looked like he was going to jump into the water but he was too scared to jump. I walked on as it wasn't worth waiting and there was a museum with 500 won entry. It didn't have English brochures so I couldn't work out what it was and I almost left but decided to gave a look and went in. Add breaking sunglasses earlier It was about emperor Qin of China something I knew fairly well and it was all in Korean with Chinese translations I think. I had a look round then had a look at their viewpoint and then carried on along the coast and soon came to the place where the waterfall went into the sea. The path took me past the top of the waterfall but a bit further on tgere was a ticket booth to go down and see it properly. I was going to pay the 2,000 and go although it was just another waterfall but something clicked when I saw listed on their building "no refunds". Was the waterfall that bad? Regardless that and the possible quantity of tourists there made me decide not to go and I carried on along the coast with some more rock features on the way. Further on was another waterfall but it was pretty small and there were people there as well. I took a few pictures then moved on. It was getting late and I had to decide whether to stick or twist. My last bookmark was a couple of kilometres away and it would take me past where the buses go north so every minute was 2 minutes as I would have to walk back as well. I carried on and decided to just go to the end of this headland and got a closer view of the island and then I turned around in the forest and went back along the roads towards the buses. I was hungry so I bought a pot noodle from a shop for 950 and missed the opportunity to buy another 2 for the price of 1 as they do buy 2 get 1. I started eating on the way to the bus stop which was near and the bus was due in 6 minutes and I still had a full pot noodle. I started drinking as much as I could so that when the bus came I had a pot of noodles without much liquid in that I put in my bag. The bus was fairly quick getting vack but I got off a couple of stops early to see a bit more of the town starting with the city hall. It was a fairly plain white building although it did have murals round the side and some art in front. I headed home and went to a church and then a round park area which was walled and had a shrine inside and a ticket booth but of course it was closed now. There wasn't much else to see on the way apart from shops but there was a tower I'd tried to see the other day but not properly bothered. It turned out to be an old city turret and connected to the city wall built 500 or 600 years ago and I could climb up and look around which didn't take long as it was small. I climbed back down and headed back to the hostel where I ate the last of my fish sausage along with baked beans, delish. My room was now empty so I didn't worry about waking people the next day and I could have a shower then. I spent some more time planning and booked a flight from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur, hopefully the last flight I would need. I read a little and then went to sleep.
0 Comments
|
|